Marenco Swisshelicopter SKYe SH09 Makes First Flight

Stephen Pope

Tuesday, October 07, 2014 at 08:41 PM ET

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Marenco Swisshelicopter

Key Takeaways:

Marenco Swisshelicopter's new SKYe SH09, an all-composite, single-engine helicopter, recently made its first successful hover flights in Switzerland, marking the start of its certification program.
Powered by a Honeywell HTS900-2 engine, the SH09 is designed to carry one pilot and seven passengers, with initial handling reported as expected.
The company has already secured over 50 orders for the helicopter, which is priced around $3 million, and plans to begin production within 12 to 16 months.

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A totally new helicopter from a completely new company made its first flight in Mollis, Switzerland, recently, kicking off the certification program for the single-engine SKYe SH09 built by Marenco Swisshelicopter.

With chief test pilot Dwayne Williams at the controls, the SKYe SH09 performed five short hover flights on October 2, logging 20 minutes in the air. Handling was said to be as expected.